Watching any anime?

[NotMiki]

It's funny.  Crystania isn't objectively any good, but if you took its plot, it'd be a pretty decent D&D campaign.  That's the long way of saying it has a good setup but does nothing with it.

[Pyro]

Evangelion 2.0: Wow. Fun. Generally echoing Soppy here, with a little more hate for the insert songs and a little more hype for the good old UST between Asuka and Shinji.

[Grefter]

It's funny.  Crystania isn't objectively any good, but if you took its plot, it'd be a pretty decent D&D campaign.  That's the long way of saying it has a good setup but does nothing with it.

So someone has done the Lodoss Wars/Riftwar Saga/Dragon Lance thing without actually doing the D&D game?  How lame.

[Hunter Sopko]

It's funny.  Crystania isn't objectively any good, but if you took its plot, it'd be a pretty decent D&D campaign.  That's the long way of saying it has a good setup but does nothing with it.

So someone has done the Lodoss Wars/Riftwar Saga/Dragon Lance thing without actually doing the D&D game?  How lame.

Chrystania is set in the Lodoss Wars universe. It takes place on the continent that Lodoss Island is near.

[Niu]

Fullmetal Alchemist-

Final chapter....
Farewell Hohenheim!! Farewell!
Ahhh, tears are coming out of my eyes!!!

[AndrewRogue]

FMA is over...

*sniffles*

[Scar]

Rewatching Trigun, Berserk, and Escaflowne with my girlfriend since she somehow missed all three of those wonderful animes. Starting with Trigun, and going to work her into Berserk since it is a little more dark then what she enjoys. =)

[NotMiki]

Eva 2.22.

So there are two movies after this?

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Eva 2.22.

So there are two movies after this?

I sense Jimcasm.

[NotMiki]

Eva 2.22.

So there are two movies after this?

I sense Jimcasm.

See if I can speak abstractly enough not to spoil anything...

I had two thoughts at the end.

1. "How the fuck are they going to find enough stuff for another two whole movies?"
2. "Two whole Eva movies' worth of I-don't-know-what-the-fuck-they're-gonna-put-in-them is probably a very good thing."

Movie 2 reminded me a lot of one of the best things about Persona: Trinity Soul.  The plot proceeds.  It doesn't waste time getting back to the status quo, it just plows forward.

[Cmdr_King]

Paprika- happy little movie.

[Niu]

Eva 2.22.

So there are two movies after this?

I sense Jimcasm.

See if I can speak abstractly enough not to spoil anything...

I had two thoughts at the end.

1. "How the fuck are they going to find enough stuff for another two whole movies?"
2. "Two whole Eva movies' worth of I-don't-know-what-the-fuck-they're-gonna-put-in-them is probably a very good thing."

Movie 2 reminded me a lot of one of the best things about Persona: Trinity Soul.  The plot proceeds.  It doesn't waste time getting back to the status quo, it just plows forward.

I think there is enough stuff to put. Since Kaworu enters the scene from a completely different position, there is a lot of new stuff they can add in. Then toss in two more angel fights and fan service. Movie 3 complete.
The last movie can be devoted entirely to the mass produced EVA fight and the EoE sequence.

[Twilkitri]

Berserk -

I was expecting violence and the first segment bears this out. But then it jumps to a completely different track and runs with drama + intrigue + violence for the majority of the rest of the show. And then during the endgame it burns all the goodwill it had bought and throws all the interesting stuff out for violence. Also worth mentioning is that there is a gaping shear fracture between the ending and the post-ending with no explanation given as to how things could possibly have gone from the one situation to the other.

So it has kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm not really sure what I should be thinking of it here. The opening made the show look like it was going to be a decent monster-of-the-week type, which I enjoy, and it is somewhat jarring to have it change tack directly afterwards even if it is to a better style of show. The most of the show was great and I was very entertained. The endgame was just atrocious. I am kind of just repeating the first paragraph here SO

I cannot really think of anything else to say offhand. Didn't care much for the OP/EDs. Sometimes they forgot to add skin colour to Griffith.

[Grefter]

The real question is, did you watch the out takes?

Disection of the plot is accurate.  Berserk suffers greatly from ending since there is so much more story there (Getting from the ending to the beginning is like the next arc or two (or 6?) of the manga), it is a silly thing and should only be watched for the silly and ze ultraviolence.  It is fun for the silly though and I hear NEB loves it and it is totally his favouritest.

[Hunter Sopko]

The ending is explained better in the manga, but don't think for a second that it is any less gut-wrenching and painful than in the show. It's supposed to be that way. Griffith is willingly sacrificing his friends to gain power and it goes very, very far in showing just how horrible his decision is. Griffith KNEW this would happen and he not only agrees to it, but he ENJOYS it, even making it a point to completely rub it in Guts' face. It's an abrupt event, but even in the anime it's honestly not hard to see why the Eclipse happens. It sucks because it's disappointing to see that happen to the characters and you can not like it, but saying that it makes no sense or is just violence for violence's sake is just flat wrong.

The Eclipse itself is even more painful in the manga. Even though I knew it was coming, I was in tears and with each page even I kept asking it to stop. I know how this sounds but I'm posting it anyway. Manga also at least explains how they escaped the Eclipse too.

The first ep is really just a shoutout to Black Swordsman Guts a few post-scripts of the manga, since the actual flashback arc doesn't even begin until volume 3 and they decided to just skip 99% of it.

[Hunter Sopko]

Eva 2.22.

So there are two movies after this?

I sense Jimcasm.

See if I can speak abstractly enough not to spoil anything...

I had two thoughts at the end.

1. "How the fuck are they going to find enough stuff for another two whole movies?"
2. "Two whole Eva movies' worth of I-don't-know-what-the-fuck-they're-gonna-put-in-them is probably a very good thing."

Movie 2 reminded me a lot of one of the best things about Persona: Trinity Soul.  The plot proceeds.  It doesn't waste time getting back to the status quo, it just plows forward.

I think there is enough stuff to put. Since Kaworu enters the scene from a completely different position, there is a lot of new stuff they can add in. Then toss in two more angel fights and fan service. Movie 3 complete.
The last movie can be devoted entirely to the mass produced EVA fight and the EoE sequence.

Thats what everyone is expecting and I'm just not that sure it'll happen. We've already seen from the preview that the Third Impact is over. Done. Granted, they can restart it or do something similar, but I think that we're really moving into uncharted waters as far as the events, though the endgame of the characters' resolutions may be the same.

[Twilkitri]

I did watch the outtakes. A good deal of them were too nonsensical for my tastes sadly. Also, Griffith's voice actor needed to stop singing.

I didn't mean to imply that the final section didn't make sense. At least in the sense of the actions of the characters. Mainly I'm not a fan of what I consider to be an abrupt shift in tone and the injection of an absurd amount of supernatural content when there had not been -too- much previously. And mostly that this was what they ended on. Was this where they set out to end the adaptation or did they get cancelled?

[Hunter Sopko]

It was pretty much where they meant to end. The anime was just meant as an advertisement for the manga, which is why it was so cheap looking. It's kinda frustrating that Miura's painstakingly detailed, amazing art could be reduced to that.

The supernatural stuff comes on gradually. Again, one of those conversions that the manga makes a bit better, but there isn't honestly too much different. You'd think Zodd would tip you off to that though...

I do recommend Berserk Abridged. A mixed bag, but the clever stuff really makes it worth watching. Ep 1 is meh, Ep 2 is good, the next few are just okay, then it gets reasonably consistant, especially once you hit Midland.

[Grefter]

MMm yeah I personally never had much of an issue with the switch to fairly high concept supernatural stuff.  The majority of the story is low magic, but the setting pretty blatantly from the beginning lets you know that it is a high fantasy (albeit post apocalyptic) setting.  It may not wear it on its sleeve after that, but the Behelits constant presence is not exactly a subtle reminder (It gets whipped out every 2 or 3 episodes).  Edit - Of course that is to acknowledge that the ending is incredibly jarring, but that is the intent.

That doesn't change the fact that even if Berserk wasn't an insanely dark setting thing and they had continued on with a more up beat plot I still would have enjoyed it certainly.  It just wouldn't have been nearly as 90s at it was.  One of these days I will have to read through the whole thing to see how much it has evolved in the 20 years it has been going.

[Idun]

Just finished Bleach's Zanpaktuou Rebellion arc. For once, a good detraction from the story line. Gets sort of depressing at the end. More static fighting scenes which shows an attempt at better animation. Still formulaic Bleach though.

[Niu]

Alive- Well, this ended too..... Taisuke is still a sorry excuse of human being in the end, not a bad thing, for the purpose he served. Katsumata, pitiful, just pitiful. Mitama actually is a nice guy is... well I guess it worked. But the final chapter really should not exist, my image on Yuta has collapsed completely.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

If hope exists anywhere in Berserk, it exists solely to be crushed. Those last two episodes were fucking visceral. You really think that, even though things aren't great, that maybe the characters can make some kind of place for themselves where stuff will eventually work out if they really try. But then the show is all:

FUCK YOU THE SKY IS MADE OF BLOOD NOW.

[DjinnAndTonic]

This topic reminds me that I want to read the Berserk manga.

Know any good places to do that? I'd just buy it, but there is a severe lack of English copies where I live and this is a series where I actually care what's going on, so I don't want to trust my translation skills.

[Niu]

Djinn, you sounds like as if most fan translators are reliable.

[NotMiki]

Wherever you go for it, be sure to read the Band_of_Hawks translation, which is possibly the best scan of any manga ever, and follow up where they leave off with Evil_Genius.